Re: [Phpwebsite-developers] Relative vs Fixed font size

[ProjetObjet <li...@pr...>]

Bob,

Please note... English is not my main language ;-)

I agree with you Bob... design is meant to be functional before all, to
serve well the communication it is use for. What I beleive is that we have
to deal here with the medium limitations and go for compromises. I would sa=
y
that the two opposites are (arbitrary): at the extreme left you have a
website with no font formating at all, no plugin required and... at the
extreme right you have a full hermetic Flash framed Website with all the
bells and whistles and almost the Odorama effect.

Type speaks. Times is too much used and does not convey modernity. It shoul=
d
be banned from computers (my humble opinion ;-) If for a site the goal woul=
d
be to convey a traditional message I would then go for "Georgia" type and
it's "old style numerals". Old style numerals, are also called "non-lining"
and have ascenders and descenders like the lowercase letters, with emphasis
along the X-Height, creating a more even appearance than lining numerals
when used within lowercase text. Georgia (traditional style) as Verdana
(geometric style) are really designed for the Web, but like all common web
fonts... they work better at special certain sizes. This is why I prefer to
have control over the first impression. If a visitor wishes to zoom in the
text... just too bad. But... I will have had the control over it's very
first impression and visual lecture of the spaces. Like in music spaces
(silent and pauses) are extremely important.

When I design a printed piece, I always prioritize the information by givin=
g
to the titles -- as main texts -- more impact over menu elements and so on.
Otherwise -- if all the information is at the same level -- your brain goes
crazy and... there it goes to the recycling disposal. Usually, three font
sizes does a great job and when you even uses the bold in each of these
three sizes, it gives you even more flexibility and choices.

Although... If the dev team decides to go for relative font sizes... there
is vBulletin that uses what seems to be an interesting way to make font
choices directly in the template.

Just hope I got better understood  ;-)

Best Regards,

Yves Malouin
http://www.malouin.qc.ca



le 2002/10/09 18:21, Bob T =E0 bo...@el... a =E9crit=A0:

> I went to this website:
> http://www.malouin.qc.ca
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> And I could not change the font display size using view=3D=3D>textsize.  I am
> using IE 6.0+   I saw no "zoom" option.
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> Maybe this site does not use the "px" thingy, and it is a fixed font.
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> However, imho, the first rule of design is that it should meet the functi=
on
> first.  Design for its own sake just gets in the way.  In a web site, the
> function is usually communication.   If I can't read the font on a site, =
I
> just move on.
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> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> Yves sez:
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> Am I off track with all this?
> Does these toughts are of any help to you great developers?
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> Best Regards,
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> Yves Malouin
> http://www.malouin.qc.ca
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